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Off the cuff: That win over UCLA was, as R.J. Davis said, one of the two most intense Carolina games of the year. We all know the other one - the win at Coach K's final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Should the Tar Heels get by the Saint Peter's BLMers and Duke gets by Arkansas, the game of the century would be in the NCAA semi-finals with Carolina playing Duke.

That just might be too much. If they ever did play in the Final Four, it should be the final game. Duke should have the edge with the revenge factor and the win it for Coach K thing. So, Carolina fans might be rooting for Arkansas Saturday or ordering blood pressure medicine if both UNC and Duke win.

Older Tar Heel fans remember Coach McGwire's Marquette team beating Carolina in the final game in his last season. They likely don't want that scenario again.

But first the Tar Heels have to get by a Saint Peter's team that beat Kentucky, which crushed Carolina early in the year, and Purdue, which handled the Heels also early in the year, to get to the Elite 8.

UNC coach Hubert Davis got a bit testy about a question regarding the early season losses. He pointed out that the Tar Heels had won nine of their last 10 games and 15 of their last 18 games and here we are still talking about games in December and January.

The Tar Heels have come a long way since 20-plus point losses and a home loss to lowly Pitt.

Armando Bacot said the Carolina players remained confident and never worried. "We knew we could make a run," he said. "We never thought we were a bad team."

Carolina has a lot of offensive weapons: Love, Bacot, Manek and Davis. Any of them could explode on a given night. And the Heels are a good rebounding team. Plus, they have a player in Leaky Black who can lockdown opposing team's top scorers.

There isn't much depth and if the shots aren't falling or if someone gets in foul trouble, the Heels could lose.

Saint Peter's would like to slow down the Tar Heels. UCLA was able to do it for a half but Saint Peter's will have to do it for a whole game. They've done it so far but if the Tar Heels can score 70, they'll be in good shape even though this is the first game of the tournament - except maybe against Marquette - that they'll be the favorite.

It's time - probably past time - for the Saint Peter's Cinderella story to end. Carolina fans probably feel like this Tar Heel team is a Cinderella story also after low expectations.

Saint Peter's has already helped the Tar Heels in this tournament with the win over Kentucky. With the win over UCLA, the Tar Heels now have tied Kentucky for the most NCAA Tournament wins all time with 129 victories.

Tar Heels 73, UCLA 66

Heels advance as Love gets hot late

North Carolina's Caleb Love scored 27 of his career-high 30 points in the second half including tying and go-ahead threes in the last 100 seconds to lead the Tar Heels to a 73-66 win over UCLA to advance to the NCAA Elite Eight. (3/25)

"Caleb played out of his mind in the second half," fellow UNC guard R.J. Davis said. "But it was all about getting stops at the end."

The Tar Heels outscored UCLA 12-2 over the last couple of minutes to earn the win. "It was intense - we had to fight that one out," Davis said.

Love hit only one of eight shots in the first half but he changed shoes at the half at the suggestion of Eric Hoots, Carolina's director of basketball operations. "Hoots told me to change shoes because I don't play good in black shoes so I changed them," Love said with a laugh. He said he got "in a mood" in the second half.

"Coach (Hubert) Davis wanted me to attack the basket and I got a few layups going downhill and then I started hitting shots," Love said.

The Bruins led most of the game and nearly all of the first half, as they led by three at the half, 31-28, and by as many as five in the second half. But there also were 12 lead changes in the second half.

The last lead change came after Love drained a three from the top of the key to tie it with just over 1:40 left and followed it with a three on the right side just in front of his coach to put the Heels up 67-64 with a minute to go.

An Armando Bacot tip in, that just rolled in over the rim after a Davis miss, put the Heels up by two possessions with 15.5 seconds left. After a Bruin basket, four free throws by Love and Davis wrapped it up.

Carolina had trailed for six straight minutes until Brady Manek, who hadn't shot well, banged in a three from the left wing with 4:22 left to put the Heels up 61-60. UNC led only eight minutes and 20 seconds.

In addition to Love's 30 points, Bacot had 14 points and 15 rebounds while Manek tallied 13 points and Davis 12.

UCLA, led by Jules Bernard's 16 points, ends the season 27-8.

Carolina, now 27-9 overall, takes on Cinderella team Saint Peter's, who were a 15th seed, Sunday at 5:05 p.m.

Box Score


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